SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - The Salvation Army helps provide for some of the most basic needs for many around the holidays, and year-round. For some families, those needs extend beyond food, clothes and housewares. They need hope and a place to get a new start.
Kathy Redden loves spending time with her granddaughters. Their apartment isn't big, but it's filled with a lot of love this Christmas season. This sweet holiday story had its start almost a decade ago, when Kathy and daughter Shannon decided to go back to church.
"She said let's pick somewhere close. I said here, right here, the Salvation Army. She says that's not a church," Kathy said.
There's a chapel, Sunday school and more. They took it all in.
"Then my daughter kind of went to the wayside," Kathy said.
Shannon's involvement with drugs at the border lead to a federal felony conviction and prison time. It was the turning point.
"When she got out, she was a different person," Kathy said.
Shannon went straight back to the Salvation Army for support, and to volunteer, even ringing the bell before they finally gave her a job. It's an interesting place for her to be at this point in her journey, because it's where her journey began all those years ago.
"She made it her mission to give back because she realized that it was God that got her here," Kathy said.
Now Kathy, Shannon and her daughters Rhiannon and Jaida are soldiers for the Salvation Army, dedicated to doing the most good.
"It's about helping the needy. Helping those who need help – that's what's amazing to me," Kathy said.
It's a good ending to an incredible, everyday story.
